Careful What You Wish For
by Cloud-Dee
Summary: When Arthur unknowingly makes a wish in a fit of anger, he wakes up to find his whole world changed. Why is Gwen married to Lancelot, the local swordsmith? Where are his loyal knights? Why is everyone so fearful of him? And most importantly, why is everyone convinced that Merlin, doesn't exist?
1. Chapter 1

Careful What You Wish For

The day Arthur's world was ripped out from under his feet, there was no great battle. There was no horror or great trauma that tore away everything he had held to be true. It was just a simple move, and act of purely instinct and in that moment, Arthur knew his world was coming crashing down around his ears with nothing he could do to stop it.

The day had started normally enough. Woken groggily by the unrelenting rays of sunshine piercing through his window and the overly cheery voice of his manservant/friend informing him of the next thousand and one mundane tasks he had to do for that day.

Of course, as usual, he ignored most of them and set about another training session with his knights, working the stiffness of sleep from his shoulders by slamming his friends repeatedly into the dirt. Except for when he was fighting Gwaine however, when it was his turn to be slammed hard into the ground by a well-placed sweep to the back of the legs, only to be hauled up again a few seconds later by his grinning friend.

Later, he stripped down from training and set about doing the easiest and least boring of his tasks, making sure Merlin was with him to ease the boredom and earning only minimal exasperated looks from his wife as she looked in on him lovingly before returning to her everyday duties.

Just after the sun had made its way half way across the sky, Arthur threw down his pen and proclaimed he was sick of the work and needed to get out. Honoured and humbled as he was by the great gift and burden being king, paperwork was never his forte and there was only so much of it in a day he could take.

Due to the ever present lurking threat of Morgana, there were always patrols out around the borders of Camelot and therefore no convenient opening for him to get out on "official business". Instead, he opted for a hunting trip, placating the council members by reminding them that Camelot was in a time of great peace and that he was sure the paperwork could wait another day.

Merlin, of course, came with him, but aside from that he was alone, his knights having other business to attend to during the course of the day. So it was simply him and Merlin, just like the old days, who set out that fine summer's afternoon on the day Arthur's world would fall apart.

Shadows grew and lengthened through the day and by the time Arthur was worn out and satisfied by the day's kill, darkness was already creeping upon them. He and Merlin turned their horses around and set off back in the direction of home, minds already on the food and warmth they would gain when they got back.

It was probably because of this, worn and sleepy from a day of vigorous activity and with the thoughts of food and warmth dominating their minds, that neither Arthur, nor Merlin noticed the silence.

The lack of birds singing on a fine summer's afternoon was unusual to say the least and it should have alerted them immediately that something was wrong. But it didn't and it was only when the first arrow streaked out from the trees, missing Arthur's face by millimetres that they realised they were under attack.

Instinct quickly taking over, Arthur grabbed his sword and leapt from his horse, just in time to see the bandits coming sprinting out from the cover of the trees. There were not many of them but he was alone with only a sword and no armour to protect him. Arthur cursed his own foolishness and prepared to fight, sword gripped tightly in his hand.

The battle was short and bloody. Arthur dodged and ducked, slashing with his sword and watching the bandits fall around him. Quickly, they realised it was not just some simple noble they had stumbled across, but a highly trained knight, and they soon fled back into the darkness of the forest.

It was only as he was watching their retreating figures that Arthur turned to look at Merlin. He expected him to be hiding somewhere, possibly behind a rock or tree since his skills with a swords were abysmal at best.

What he saw shocked and surprised him.

Merlin was standing, silent, in the clearing they had fought in, sword dangling limply from his hand. There was no blood on the shining metal, that should have been Arthur's first clue, but he was too distracted, and pleasantly surprised by that fact that his friend had finally managed to make himself useful in a battle. Around Merlin, bodies lay strewn, freshly dead and still with the snarls of battle on their faces.

A long moment stretched out, the silence so thick it could have been cut with a knife. Finally Arthur stepped forward, sheathing his sword with a grin.

"Well well Merlin, it looks like all those training sessions finally paid off! Who'd have thought _you _would have been able to…"

In that one tiny second between one word and the next, everything fell apart. The men who had attacked them may have been dead or fled into the trees but the archer who had started it all was not, and it seemed revenge was on his mind.

An arrow came hurtling out of the trees, glinting and deadly. Arthur barely had time to blink, to consider that there was no way that he could move out of the way in time and that the arrow was heading straight for his chest.

But it never met its target. Instead it swerved, as though it had been grabbed from mid-air and flung, straight back at the shooter. Arthur heard a cry from the trees and distantly noticed as a body fell with a resounding thud from one of them. But none of this really registered when he had eyes only for his servant.

Because his servant, his _friend_, who had been with him for so many years and stuck with him through even the darkest of hours, had one arm stretched out, as if he had just thrown a spear, and his familiar blue eyes were flashing the purest of gold.

Everything in Arthur's mind seemed to freeze in that second. It could not be possible. It could _not_ be possible. Merlin was clumsy and an idiot and Arthur's best friend. To think of him possessing magic, that single evil force that had ripped so much from him was laughable. Yet the proof was here, right before his eyes, and there was nothing he could do to deny it.

Turning towards him, Merlin opened his mouth, eyes wide with the shock of what had just happened, and unmistakably returning to blue. His hand slowly lowered and he seemed conflicted, still trying to find the right words to say.

"Arthur I…I…" He made a little choking sound, before looking up at Arthur's face, eyes filled with a pleading hope.

"I'm so sorry I didn't tell you before. But I have magic. And…well…it's complicated but you see…I…we…"

He stuttered to a halt at the look in Arthur's eyes.

Inside of him, Arthur was a raging mass of turmoil. Magic was evil. It had torn away his mother, destroyed his father and corrupted his sister. He had seen its evil work spread throughout his land and done all he could to stop it, before it destroyed everything he loved.

And then there was Merlin, his friend, the one constant in his life, the only thing that had never been lost to him, the one thing he could always rely on. Merlin wasn't evil, was the furthest thing from evil he knew. But all magic was evil and Merlin had magic.

He had loved Merlin, like he had loved Morgana but hadn't Morgana been corrupted and soured by magic, turned against everything that loved her and twisted into a traitor. Merlin had been hiding this secret from him for who knew how long and Arthur could no longer trust a single word that came from his mouth.

All those smiles could have been faked, a way to get close to his heart before the final knife was thrust in and twisted. All those times they had laughed together could just have been a new way for magic to get behind his defences and tear him apart.

Magic was evil.

That he knew.

He had yet to meet even one sorcerer to prove him wrong about that.

So there was only one thing he could do.

"Get out of my sight." Despite the burning turmoil within him, the words came out as cold as ice.

"Arthur…" Merlin's voice was pleading and his eyes beseeching, begging Arthur to listen, to understand.

"GET OUT OF MY SIGHT" Arthur roared, fury pounding in his veins. Merlin looked so innocent, so scared, so unlike evil he could hardly bare it. But it was all just an act. It had to be.

"You have betrayed me. You are nothing but a sorcerer and by the laws of this land I should run you through where you stand."

Merlin gasped, a strangled, choked out sob as though every word Arthur spoke was a knife driven into his heart.

"Arthur, please listen to me. I've never…I've always…I've…for _you_. Only for you. It was all for you."

"Do not speak to me, sorcerer. By whatever curse you have placed upon me I cannot find it in my heart to kill you." The thought of Merlin, pale and cold in death, was enough to make Arthur want to vomit.

"But I never want to see your face again. You have a horse. Use it. Take it from this place and never come back. If you _ever_ enter these lands again, I will not be so merciful."

"No." The word was soft, almost a whisper, but it carried across the space between them as clear as a bell. "No Arthur. Everything…_Everything _I've done, was for you. I've done nothing but strive to protect you and do good with the gift I've been given. If you ever thought of me as a friend, listen to me now. Magic is not evil. And neither am I.

Arthur turned away, desperately trying to hide the bitter sting in his eyes.

"Magic is the purest of evil. It has done nothing but hurt and corrupt. It twisted Morgana and now it seems, it has taken you too. It is the purest evil and I will fight it till the day I die."

He strode away, grabbing the reigns of his horse and swinging himself up into the saddle. "Leave now. And don't come back."

"You can't mean that Arthur. You can't. At least give me a chance to prove it to you." Arthur had never heard a man sounding more broken and he couldn't bring himself to look back into the eyes of the man he thought he could trust.

"I'm your friend"

"You were. You were my friend." Arthur dug his heels into his horse and spun it around, preparing to ride away. The last thing he saw was a sorcerer, standing surrounded by the bodies of those he had slain, a sword in his hand and tears in his eyes.

"I wish I had never met you Merlin"

There was a blinding flash of the purest white light.

A painful tug, as though the ground had suddenly been ripped from beneath him.

The sensation of falling.

And then…

Nothing.

**AN- So finally, here's my new story! It is going to be a multichapter based after the end of series four and discounting anything that happens in series 5 (although I am loving series 5 and can't wait to see how they end it!) This is just the introduction to the story and the main plot will start from here on out. I really hope you enjoy it and Please don't forget to review! It makes my day and really inspires me to keep writing! **

**Also, feel free to ask me any questions you want, because everyone who reveiws will get a personal reply from me. You deserve it!**

**Cloud-dee**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN – I feel like I owe you all an explanation. It has been a long time since I posted the first chapter of this story and a lot has changed since then. My love for Merlin has not faded but since it has ended I have moved on to other fandoms and I no longer have the inspiration to write this story any more. I'm very sorry, but I feel that if I continue it will not live up to any expectations and I definitely don't want that.**

**However, I already had the plot of this story laid out and I really do love it. So below I have written a synopsis of the plot and how it was going to end. I hope that is better than nothing. Also, although I probably don't deserve it, I would love it if you reviewed one last time. It would mean the world to me!**

**I will no longer be writing for Merlin but I have loved my time in this fandom and will never forget it or all of the wonderful people in it.**

**So thank you, all of you.**

**Cloud-dee**

Careful What You Wish For:

Arthur wakes up to find that he has a new servant and Merlin is nowhere to be found. As he progresses through the day he finds that things are drastically different around Camelot. He can find none of his knights except Leon, and even he is different, polite to Arthur but cold, with none of the friendship Arthur is used to, and what seems like fear in his eyes.

Gwen is married to the local blacksmith, Lancelot, who came to Camelot with dreams of becoming a knight that never came true. She also seems to be a little scared of Arthur and doesn't act anything like the woman he knew.

He also finds he has lots of people locked in his dungeons, pending for execution. Horrified, he runs to Gaius to find out what is going on. Gaius seems confused as to what Arthur is talking about and assures him nothing in Camelot has changed. When Arthur asks where Merlin is he replies that he has no idea who Merlin is. When Arthur asks about Hunith however he replies that the last he heard she was in Ealdor and he knows she has a son, who may have been called Merlin.

Arthur immediately rides out to Ealdor but all he finds when he gets there are blackened ruins. The whole town has been destroyed.

In the town over, while trying to get an explanation as to what happened, Arthur finds Gwaine. Gwaine has no idea who he is, but tells him the whole town was destroyed by bandits years ago when they couldn't pay the bandit's fees. Everyone perished.

Arthur also questions him about the king of Camelot and discovers his rule in this reality is a tyrannical one. His father was assassinated when Arthur was very young, by rebels aided by the Lady Morgana. The prince was too young to rule properly but insisted anyway. He started a second Great Purge as revenge for his father's death, and continued executing anyone suspected of sorcery to this day. He was briefly married to the princess Elena, but executed her when he discovered she was a Shee.

The people of Camelot live in fear of him and his sister Morgana's forces are strong with the families of people he has wronged or executed.

Even through all this, no-one know who Merlin is or where to find him. Throughout their conversation, Arthur gains Gwaine's trust (Gwaine still does not know who he is) and Gwaine promises to take him to the druids, who may be able to help him find his friend.

When Arthur gets to the druid camp they immediately know who he is and turn on him. But their leader senses something differently and under an honesty potion he tells them of how the world is wrong and he is not who they think he is. They agree it help him, and send him to see the most powerful of their kind, who they call Emrys.

When he goes to the place Emrys is said to be, he meets a dark, hooded figure. He begs help from the stranger to find out what has happened and how to fix it, but the man refuses him because he has murdered so many of his kind.

As Arthur begs him to change his mind, his hood slips and Arthur sees the man is Merlin.

He convinces Emrys to trust him by telling him things only Merlin, or someone very close to him, would know. In exchange Emrys tells him of how his mother sent him away to be raised by the druids, and how she was killed along with his village in a bandit attack years ago, that he was too late to stop.

He also tells Arthur that it sounds like some very powerful magic has caused a shift in the universe. Then he takes him to see the dragon.

The Great Dragon is distrustful of Arthur, but agrees to look at his memories to find out what happened to cause the change in the world. He sees Arthur finding out about Merlin and rejecting him (which Arthur himself had forgotten) and about the wish. He tells all this to Emrys, who looks on Arthur with contempt.

Arthur begs their help on the basis that he and Merlin are friends, but Emrys refuses, telling him that everything that happened in their friendship happened with Merlin. Because Emrys was raised without those memoires, he and Merlin essentially are different people and therefore he has no connection with Arthur at all.

Hopeless, Arthur returns to Camelot, only to find that Morgana's armies are preparing to attack. He rides out to meet her to speak, and when she lists all the atrocities he has allowed and the pain he has caused, he can't bring himself to fight back, believing maybe in this world she is right.

Just as she is about to strike him down, Emrys appears, stopping her. She allows him to speak as a neutral party as there is no resentment between them and she respects his power. He convinces her to give him three days with Arthur before she attacks. After that, he will help her destroy Camelot.

Arthur is horrified but Emrys explains he is going to try and find a way to help Arthur get back to his own world.

Emrys and Arthur go on a quest for answers and finally find what really happened. The wish, which was fuelled by hate and anger, attracted the attention of the Fae. They granted it and the world shifted to a world where Arthur and Merlin had never met. (They also find out that Arthur should have died multiple times without Merlin but the wish was to find out what Arthur's _life _would have been like without Merlin and it is hard to teach a lesson to a corpse)

Arthur pleads for them to reverse their work but they tell him it is impossible. When he asks them why, they explain that he is nowhere near powerful enough to make a wish they could grant. All the pain and anger that changed the world was backed up by powerful magic and it was not cast by him.

The one who made the wish was Merlin.

Merlin had been so angry at Arthur's words that he had wished Arthur could really see what his life would have been like without him. Only the wish caster has the power to make another wish to reverse the first, so the only one that could fix it is Emrys.

Arthur is thrilled but Emrys refuses. He points out that not everything about thins world is bad. Once Arthur is overthrow, magic will be free and his people can live in peace. Morgana is not yet so twisted by hate that she has descended into madness and she may actually make a good queen. Freya is waiting for Emrys back at the druid camp and in Arthur's world, she is long dead. Lancelot and Gwen are happy together and back in Arthur's world there was only pain and betrayal.

Finally, Emrys points out that if he chooses to change the world back to the way it was, he will die. If the world goes back, it will be Merlin there who he views as a different person from himself.

Because they were raised in entirety different ways, they are different people with different memories, and to go back to the way it was will mean that the Emrys of this world will never have even existed. He will be replaced by a man he doesn't even know.

Arthur tries to convince him that Emrys and Merlin are the same man but Emrys points out that it is experiences that shape who we grow up to be (just like how Arthur was such a different man without the influence of Merlin) and he and Merlin share only how they were born, no who they each grew up to be.

Arthur can't argue but begs Emrys to change his mind, promising he will free magic as soon as he returns home. The second great purge will never have happened and he will make sure all magic users will live in peace in his kingdom. He promises he will remember Emrys and the lesson he has been taught here, but that the old world, though flawed, was still better.

Emrys realises that Arthur is right and for the sake of the hundreds who have been lost in this world, he has to change it back and save them, even if it means losing himself. He turns to the Fae and reverses his wish. As the world dissolves around them, he turns to Arthur, looks him straight in the eye and says.

"Remember Emrys, Arthur. Remember me."

Arthur wakes up and the first thing he sees is Merlin's worried face. Arthur had fallen from his horse as he rode away and was knocked unconscious. To Merlin's surprise, Arthur pulls him into a crushing hug and promises him that he will never be arrested and that magic will be free throughout the land.

When Merlin questions his sudden change of heart he replies,

"You are my friend Merlin and I trust you. And I made a promise. A promise to someone that I used to know."

The end


End file.
